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ZAPPA IN NEW YORK

 Titties & Beer

Notes and Comments
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From: Bill Lantz <lantz@cableaz.com>
  Then (on 1976 stage of developement) known as Chrissy Puked Twice
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It was the blackest night
There was no moon in sight
You know the stars ain't shinin'
'Cause the sky's too tight
I heard the scarey wind
I seen some ugly trees
There was a werewolf honkin'
'Long the side of me

I'm mean 'n I'm bad, y'know I ain't no sissy
Got a big-titty girly by the name of Chrissy
Talkin' about her 'n my bike 'n me...
'N this ride up the Mountain of Mystery, Mystery
From: Zack.....A Dangerous Person <102040.1674@CompuServe.COM>
  Y'know, It wasn't until I sat down and actually listened to the TEXT of L'histoire du Soldat that I finally realized the Stravinsky-Titties and Beer connection. When it hit me, I giggled till I pissed my pants, then went out and beat up a scientologist.
From: Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com>
  The comparison is correct but stretched. Given Frank's love for the work and the fact he served as narrator (I believe) in the early 70's to a performance of the piece, I think the tie-in is evident. But here is the actual story - lifted from the Stravinsky Works Home Page ("http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jkandell/music/strav/files/Stravinsky.html#45)
  Scene 1: A soldier, on his way home on leave is accosted by an old man (the devil in disguise) who attempts to push a book on him. The soldier protests that he hasn't any money to buy the book. The old man assures him that the book will bring him wealth untold and that he will gladly exchange it for the soldier's cheap old fiddle. Recognizing a good bargain, the Soldier agrees but soon finds he can't make heads or tails of the book. The devil proposes a simple solution: come stay at my house for a few days (where I have good foods, cigars and drink) and you can teach me to play this fiddle while I teach you the ways of the book. The soldier agrees and soon finds that the old man was as good as his word.
  Scene 2: Satisfied, the soldier finds himself back on the road, but as soon as he reaches his village, he discovers that he wasn't at the devil's house for just three days, three years have passed. His fiance has married and has children, his friends and family run from him in horror, thinking that he is a ghost. Disgusted, and realizing who the old man really is, he throws the book away, but the devil, disguised as a cattle merchant, appears and convinces him to take up the book again and make his fortune.
  Scene 3: The soldier is indeed wealthy, but all his wealth can't please him since he has lost the only things that matter: his family and his fiance. The devil, this time disguised as an old woman, appears to sell him his fiddle. But when the soldier finds he can no longer play it, he throws the fiddle away again and tears the book to shreds.
  Scene 4: The Soldier comes to a town where the kings daughter is ill and a reward of the princesses hand has been offered to whoever can cure her. A fellow soldier in a bar convinces the soldier to give it a shot. The soldier again meets the devil and they play cards. The soldier, in the progress of the game, realizes that the only way to win back his old life is to lose all his money to the devil. The devil falls defeated and the Soldier triumphantly reclaims his fiddle.
  Scene 5: The Soldier finds he is able to cure the princess of her illness with his music. At the close of the scene he makes the devil dance a jig to his tune.
  Scene 6: The newlyweds are happy as they have never been. The princess begs to be introduced to the Soldier's family, but the soldier, who realizes that to leave the kingdom would put him again under the spell of the devil, refuses. But he can't resist the temptation of his wife's charms and so agrees. As they cross the frontier, the inevitable happens and the devil dances his triumphant dance.
From: ivester@utkvx.utk.edu (Stan Ivester)
  It might be interesting to compare this song to "The Floppy Boot Stomp" by Captain Beefheart (on Bat Chain Puller). Both are album-openers, and the lyrics of both have to do with summoning up the devil. Don's song is more evocative and bluesy while Frank's is obviously played (very well) for laughs. The idea of calling up the devil (accidentally or otherwise) is itself a very old folklore theme.
  Technical Notes (thanks to Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com> )
From: jayjones@aztec.asu.edu (Jay Jones)
  It [L'Historie du Soldat] is more often performed as a concert piece without narration. A performance of note took place on July 15, 1966, at Lincoln Center with Elliot Carter as the soldier and John Cage as the devil, John Cage upstaged everyone and stole the show, according to Aaron Copland.
  The terms opera buffa and secular oratorio do not apply in regards to Histoire because there is no singing. So, I think a burlesque or narrative is a better description, also burlesque is another term for vaudeville, and FZ referred to the Flo and Eddie band as a vaudeville band so there you have my 2 cents worth.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  And my 2 kopecks :-)))
  _The Real Frank Zappa Book_ p.116
  "Once I regained mobility, I decided to go back on the road - with the band. The band with Mark and Howard didn't exist anymore - they all had to go out a get other jobs during the year I couldn't work.
  The first post-wheelchair appearance was as a RECITER, in a perfomance of Starvinsky's L'Histoire du soldat at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Lukas Foss"
  CC
  And for another IMAGINARY ONE this is second would-be classical music back-assward connection in this album. Now under suspiction is Illinois Enema Bandit. Just look on it...
From: biffyshrew@aol.com (Biffyshrew)
  Just thought I'd let everyone know that Penderecki's opera Die Teufel Von Loudun (The Devils Of Loudun) is finally out on CD. This is the same Philips recording from 1969 of which Zappa once said, "Tatiana Troyanos...sounds absolutely marvelous during the enema scene. The story is about a hunchbacked nun who's possessed by the devil and has to have an exorcism. The exorcism involves the nun being given a hot herbal enema. In live performance the exorcism takes place behind a screen and you hear Tatiana singing and screeching whilst an orchestra plays enema music. You also hear the devil chuckling from inside the nun's bowel."
  I've been waiting for YEARS for this to be reissued. Tatiana is dead now.
  (Don't be fooled by the enema banditry and the Zappa endorsement into thinking this is comedy music, mind you; the opera is mostly quite grim, as it deals largely with the torture and burning at the stake of a priest falsely accused of sexually molesting the demented nun.)
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"Where's those titties I like so well,
'n' my godam beer!"
Is what I stared to yell, then I heard this noise
Like a crunchin' twig, 'n' up jamped the Devil...
He's about that big
From: "C.H. Huey" <chrishuey@earthlink.net>
  In the song Titties 'n Beer, the line 'Up Jumped the Devil' is in reference to an Robert Johnson song called 'Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)', which I'm sure Frank was familiar with.
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Well he just got out his floss
'N started cleanin' his fang
So I shot him with my shooter
Said: BANG BANG BANG
From: Kimmo Pyykko <kimmo@foo.tky.hut.fi>
  Just a "street name" for a gun, I'd guess this refers to a pistol.
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Just rhyming slang for "gun". The type of person narrating this story would probably have a handgun, commonly known as a "Saturday Night Special" - a cheap weapon whose sole reason for existing is to hurt or kill another person.
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"Man, You can't fool me...you ain't that bad...
I mean you shoulda seen some of the souls I had...
Why there was Milhous Nixon 'n Agnew, too...
'n both
of those suckers was worse 'n you..."
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Spiro T. Agnew. Vice-president under Nixon, who was faced with indictment by a grand jury for having accepted bribes from construction contractors while serving as Governor of the state of Maryland. This did not come out until both of them had been re-elected as Pres and Vice-pres; Agnew, seeing that the game was up for him, resigned. This was about 6 months to a year before Nixon was forced out. Agnew never went to prison.
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"Wait a minute...a tinge of doubt crosses my mind...when you say...
that you want to make a deal with me..."

"That's very, very true
I'm only interested in two things
"Yeah?"
See if you can guess what they are"

"I would think...uh...let's see, maybe Stravinsky..."
  Just innocent mockery or another evidence of L'histoire-Titties connection?
From: Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com>
  More evidence I think.
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  I don't have the text of Soldier's Story but I've seen a TV production and I don't know what this "connection" is supposed to be, other than that the devil figures in both tales. I always figured that when FZ said he was only interested in 2 things, and Terry says one of them is Stravinsky, they are only stating a fact about FZ.
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"I'll give you two clues.
Let go of your pickle"

"What?"

"Let go of your pickle!"
From: ulrich@sfu.ca (Charles Ulrich)
  A pickle is a cucumber (or some other food item) that has been soaked in saltwater or vinegar. In ZINY, "pickle" is clearly meant to refer to Terry's penis. I've never heard the word used this way, but it is undeniably what is intended. "Let go of your pickle!" thus means, "Stop masturbating!" ("To let go" means "to release", so "Let go of it!" means "Release it!" or "Put it down!"
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  "Pickle" is common American slang for "penis", especially as applied to infant or small boys by their squeamish mothers. Older males usually discard it in favor of "dick" or somesuch.
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"I'm not holding my pickle"

"Well, who's holding your pickle then?"

"I don't know...she's out in the audience...
Hey Dale, would you like
to come up here and hold
my pickle to satisfy this weird man
out on the stage?"
From: Kimmo Pyykko <kimmo@foo.tky.hut.fi>
  Dunno if they were married, but she was at least his girlfriend at the time.
From: Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com>
  Not excatly certain but I heard an interview with FZ somewhere (or was it Dale herself?) that spoke about her sneaking in to rehearsals and hanging out until she 'weeermed' her way in.
From: cglass@vunet.vinu.edu (CUCFAN)
  Dale met Frank in an all-night deli in Boston when he was in town sometime in 1975. He told her that if she was ever in L.A. to come over to the studio and she could sit in on a session. When she turned up one day, Frank was working with the band, which included Terry. They were attracted to each other right away and got together. Dale continued to live in Boston for a little while but relocated to L.A. soon after that. Terry quit Zappa's band during rehearsals for the Fall 1978 tour, and Terry & Dale got married in 1979. They formed Missing Persons with Warren in 1980. Missing Persons and the Bozzio marriage both broke up in 1986.
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She said "I got me three beers and a fistful of downs
and I'm gonna get ripped, so fuck, you clowns!"
From: Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com>
  Alcohol plus barbituates equals instant fucked-up and black outs.
  CC
  See 200 MOTELS Strictly Genteel song's final
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Then she gave us the finger,
it was rigid and stiff
  :-)))
    o
    O
  oOOO     That gesture I believe
  (   O
   \ (
  :-)))))
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  You got it. Not a bad graphic, there.
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